Tag Archives: centinel2012

Jun 16 2017

France Police Hunting Tourists To Shake Them Down


Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes

Re-Posted Jun 16, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong; I had the wonderful experience of flying to France to see my son going to school there. Upon my arrival, I was immediately commandeered by the French police asking me how much money I had. I didn’t even get out of the Paris airport. I was not dressed elegantly; just jeans. I wanted to send you this not because reading what you write and experiencing it are two different things.

Thank you for what you do

GK

ANSWER: Yes. France is going nuts. They are stopping trains that pass through France and searching people’s bags for cash. And this is where they want the financial markets moved to from London? I would not have any account there. They cannot be trusted

Jun 15 2017

Merkel Wants G20 Global Taxation of Internet


Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes

Re-Posted Jun 15, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

Markel is calling upon the G20 to regulate the internet. While she if pretending to be concerned about cyberattacks, which no regulator can prevent, you have to look into the finer details. Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a global regulation sayying: “Industry 4.0 will have to go through the process that we have already gone through at the World Trade Organization (WTO) with real trading operations that we have gone through in the G20 process with financial market regulation.” 

She noted that the “concerns” include “cyberattacks, the responsibility of social platforms to tax issues in international trade, and growing concern in the world Of policy. “

In other words, she wants to tax all sales on the internet. So anyone from Germany buying anything anywhere would have to pay VAT and every online merchant would have to comply with global regulation. Additionally, governments are increasingly becoming concerned about blockchain technology and the avoidance of taxes.

As always, government pretend to be concerned about security, but it is always about the money. She also wants to shut down anyone who talks against government in the social media.

Jun 15 2017

EU Wants to Order All Euro Trading Moved from London to Paris


Armstrong Economics Blog/European Union

Re-Posted Jun 15, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

The European Union is preparing the legal basis to take over London’s extensive trading business with euro derivatives. This is just another complete failure of bureaucrats to comprehenmd market function. Perhaps they should also outlaw euro trading in the USA and Asia. That would be real smart. Then they can all sit down and play cards with euro themselves and guarantee it will never be anything to anyone else no less convertible worldwide.

The EU Commission wants to withdraw the multi-billion-dollar derivatives market from London after leaving the UK from the European Union. Transactions with securities settled in euro should then be transferred to the European Union if the relevant clearing house plays a key role in the financial system with its trading volumes. Their draft law is still in draft form. It is the testament to just how stupid bureaucrats can really be. They have already outlawed naked shorting of the government debt to prevent a crisis in sovereign debt. They fail to comprehend that in the middle of a crash, they ONLY people buying are shorts. No shorts = flash crash and no bid.

You just can’t get more brain-dead than this.

 

Jun 14 2017

Governor Jerry Brown of California Advocates the Overthrow of USA


Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate

Re-Posted Jun 14, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

Governor Jerry Brown of California is committing Treason Against the United States. He is leading a confederacy against the Federal Government and should stand trial, but of course that would be controversial. After Trump rejected the Paris Climate treaty, which had never been ratified by the Senate, the European Union announced that it would work with a climate confederacy of secessionist states in the USA. This is clearly Treason and all Federal funds should be cut off from the secessionist governments of California, New York and Washington, who have unilaterally and completely illegally entered into a foreign treaty rejecting the President of the United States on the Paris Accord.

U.S. Constitution – Article 1 Section 10

Article 1 – The Legislative Branch
Section 10 – Powers Prohibited of States

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

There is absolutely no legal basis for Jerry Brown entering into any treaty, alliance, or confederation with the EU. Governor Cuomo of New York has also committed treason saying “New York State is committed to meeting the standards set forth in the Paris Accord regardless of Washington’s irresponsible actions.”
 
Jerry Brown should be put on trial right now. He had the audacity to say: “It is a little bold to talk about the China-California partnership as though we were a separate nation, but we are a separate nation.”

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Jerry Brown described California as “a real nation-state” and said “We’re a powerful state government. We have nine other states that agree with us.” Brown boasted.

In fact, this is a Climate Alliance of California, New York, Washington, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, Virginia and Rhode Island which is absolutely unconstitutional. ALL FUNDING should be cut off to these states just as they did to Iran.

It is one thing that each state can create its own laws and punish people within the state. Then they will see as more and more businesses leave. But to sign treaties with the EU, that is absolutely treason. Jerry Brown should be in prison and there is no legal question about that for he has openly advocated the overthrow of the Federal government. That in itself is a crime without having to sign a treaty.

18 U.S. Code § 2385 – Advocating overthrow of Government

Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government; or

Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts to do so; or

Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.

If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.

As used in this section, the terms “organizes” and “organize”, with respect to any society, group, or assembly of persons, include the recruiting of new members, the forming of new units, and the regrouping or expansion of existing clubs, classes, and other units of such society, group, or assembly of persons.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 808; July 24, 1956, ch. 678, § 2, 70 Stat. 623; Pub. L. 87–486, June 19, 1962, 76 Stat. 103; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(N), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)
Jun 13 2017

Annual Growth Rates Have Dropped from 13% to 2% Since 1947 but Bill Gates Blames Robots?


Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes

Re-Posted Jun 13, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

Then we have workers being replaced by robots along with driverless cars. Here too, thanks to the elitists like Bill Gates, who suddenly wants to be an economist, he comes up with the solution that the government should tax robots as if they are workers. This, he proposes, would prevent the depletion of the government of much-needed income tax revenue.

First of all, robots are killing jobs because taxes and demand for benefits are going crazy. healthcare costs are consuming the net disposable income and government taxes, and the combination are conspiring to lower annual economic growth rates dramatically. Real GDP growth rates have been declining every since World War II and the dawn of big government. These people just do not get it. They are the problem. GDP annual growth has declined from 13% down to 2%. Just where has big government helped?

The solution to those in government is always more taxes and more government. Never even once will they entertain conducting a real study on economic growth. For then, you would discover the shocking truth that it now takes two wages to support a family that once took just one in 1940.

Taxes keep rising and the standard of living declines. Socialism is all about government helping itself to the spoils of class warfare handing crumbs to the people at the bottom to make them believe they are doing something other than filling their own pockets.

 

Mady DELVAUX

Mady Delvaux, a member of the European Parliament from Luxembourg, proposed back in 2016 in a report suggesting governments should recover lost tax revenue from workers displaced by automation and redistribute it to people in need. In short, she proposed a tax on robots. The problem is that the people in need are governments. Luxembourg ia a country you really want to stay far away from. It has the truly insane debt of almost $7 million per capital. No other government is that far beyond comprehension. No wonder she is desperate to propose taxing robots. I am surprised she hasn’t figured out a way to tax animals as well. Delvaux has said “Bill Gates is a great man and more intelligent than I am.” His proposal to tax robots is insane.

I find it amazing how everyone thinks they can be an economist and change society to right what they think is wrong. Why doesn’t Bill Gates start giving medical advice as well. The economy is not some toy to play with for these type of people are ignorant of how complex the economy truly is. I have stated many times, it is as complex as a rain forest. Every species is interconnected. Exterminate one and you wipe out the food source for another.  Even a koala bear typically inhabit open eucalypt woodlands, and the leaves of these trees make up most of their diet. Eliminate these trees and you will kill off that species. The economy is also a delicate complex entity. These people have never bother to study the economy and follow Marx insofar as if you think you can change the world, just hand it to government. We are far more interconnected that any of these people even dare to think.

Well Mr. Gates, I needed 240 employs in the 1980s and 1990s to maintain databases and collect everything around the world. I can do that an the push of a button today. So perhaps we should tax the entire internet and the computers you make along with your software became I can do myself with an assistant what it took 240 people to do 30 years ago. Perhaps you should be taxes retroactively for destroying jobs with technology.

 

Jun 13 2017

Environmentalists Want to Starve Humans to Save the Planet


Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate

Re-Posted Jun 13, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

Believe it or not, the new theory in government to protect the environment is to force companies to layoff workers. They want to put a toll on workers driving to work in Canada to discourage them from working and forcing companies to close. The Financial Post has reported a story that really makes you think about government. These “big thinkers in economics” have concluded to save the planet the solution is to have fewer workers. The way to reduce pollution and carbon emissions is to raise the costs of pollution and emissions with taxes and higher prices. They are proposing road tolls to reduce pollution.

I was invited to a Washington elite political dinner and because I attended with my friend Dick Fox who was Chairman of Temple University and I was an adviser to the University, whoever it was that made the seating arrangements for these tables of 10  seated us with the environmental groups. This was in the mid-90s. Dick was the one who kept trying to drag the truth out and there it came. These were the heads of the top three environmental organizations. They admitted that the real goal was to reduce human population by making it difficult to expand and build houses. Labeling everything wetlands would reduce the ability to expand housing and thus shrink the population. When Dick got them to admit that, he moved in for the bottom-line question and asked: “So whose grandchild are trying to prevent from being born? Your’s or mine?”

This is the root of their thinking and it is behind this new drive to reduce the number of jobs to save the planet. If they deliberately create poor people, they wont have children is the way they theorize. These people are really VERY SICK elitists beyond all rational comprehension. What right do they have to force their agenda upon the world?

It is amazing that people like Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, seems to be a totally brainwashed believer in Global Warming and criticized Donald Trump for backing out of the Paris Accord. In an open letter to his co-workers, Cook wrote, “I know many of you share my disappointment at the decision of the White House. I spoke with the President on Tuesday and tried to persuade him to let the US continue to be part of the agreement. But that has not been enough. “

Cook told Bloomberg that Trump “made a wrong decision.” Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg also wrote in his online network that the decision was “bad for the environment, bad for the economy and endangers the future of our children”. Neither seems open minded to actually look at all the evidence against Global Warming that mainstream media refuses to air. I seriously doubt that understand what they are truly supporting.

This environment elitist  theory is that higher prices will cascade through the economic system and that will reduce consumer demand and in turn force companies to shut down operations. The Financial Post wrote: “Little did Canadians know that the economy is also apparently burdened with too many workers. What else can one conclude in the wake of plans by Ontario, Alberta and B.C. to impose the equivalent of a new minimum $15 road toll on low-wage workers?”

We have some very very very sick people who think they need to reduce the world population to save the planet. Politicians just lick their lips at the thought of gaining a lot more revenue

Jun 12 2017

CNN Destroyed By Weather Channel Founder Over Climate Change


Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate

Re-Posted Jun 12, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

I can confirm that I was told to be a good boy and the government would hand me millions of dollars a year to put out studies to support whatever. They tell you what the conclusion is to be and you then write a report that they can claim some expert has derived this as if it is really impartial. They would not let anyone even speak at the Paris Climate Conference who disagreed with them. There are over 31,000 scientists who have stood up and said this is a hoax.

Jun 12 2017

The Right to Vote Should Attach to Only Those Who Pay Taxes


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics

RePosted Jun 12, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

There is a rising tied that many people are not paying attention to. That is the rising unrest among the youth. The problem with allowing the youth to vote on economic issues is simply they want to rob others so they have their free world. In Britain, they have been fighting to bring the age to vote down to 16. How can someone make any intelligent decision concerning the fate of the nation before they even have a job and pay taxes?

When it comes to war and if they are to fight such a war, then absolutely, they should have a right to vote. But when it comes to economic policies, you should not be allowed to vote unless you pay taxes. If you do not have a job, it is always easy to demand socialism to go rob someone else who has what you want. If you walked down a street and you are grabbed and told you cannot leave until you hand over money, isn’t that a crime? Yet somehow we elect politicians who will do that exact thing under threat of imprisonment if you do not hand over whatever they demand.

 

Hoe can a man write a book and explain how it feels to go through childbirth? It’s impossible! The same applies to voting. If you want to vote on anything that involves economics, you should have a stake in the process by paying taxes. Otherwise, go to your party with friends and complain about the world until you are old enough to know what the world really is.

Allowing everyone who has no stake in the game vote against others who do, it not Social Justice – it is servitude. Sorry, it is not no vote no hope, it is no vote if not responsible.

Jun 11 2017

SEC Statute of Limitations Applies to Disgorgement


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law

Re-Posted Jun 11, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

Justice Sotomayor in the Supreme Court just held that the 5-year statute of limitations for penalties under 28 USC 2462 applies to SEC disgorgement claims. This is a monumental decision for in every case the SEC claims they has disgorge you back to birth. In KOKESH v. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION decided June 5th.

Because disgorgement sought by the Securities and Exchange Commission operates as a penalty under 28 U.S.C. § 2462, in that it is imposed by the courts as a consequence for violating public laws and for punitive purposes, any claim for disgorgement in an SEC enforcement action must be commenced within five years of the date the claim accrued.

This is a major decision that would prevent many of the abuses that the SEC has carried out for decades.

Jun 10 2017

Illinois In Deep Financial Trouble


Armstrong Economics Blog/Sovereign Debt Crisis

Re-Posted Jun 10, 2017 by Martin Armstrong

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza was ordered to make a “substantial” dent in a $2 billion backlog of bills owed to Medicaid providers. The courts ruled that according to the State Constitution, it cannot reduce the pension payments to state employees. What is happening in Illinois is indicative of how governments are imploding and why I am warning get out of all State and Muni-debt before it is too late. Since State and local governments cannot “print” (create) money, they are forced to borrow and raise taxes. Consequently, they have hit the ceiling in tax resistance. What is happening is people are gradually migrating because there is absolutely no hope for states like Illinois. The only way out will have to be bankruptcy and a default on all the pension promises.

A federal judge has now intervened ordering the Comptroller to now prioritize who it pays. This is turning into the clash of titans – the epic battle between medical expenses that constantly rise regardless of the business cycle and state employees demanding pensions. Caught in the middle are the average middle class American who is being exploited from both sides. The judge now ordered the state to pay up towards Medicaid to keep doctors and hospitals from cutting off care for the low-income families that rely on the program.

I have often pointed out the fate of the city of Mainz. They had their technological boom with the invention of the printing press there. The politicians couldn’t wait to spend tax money assuming the business cycle would never end. So they spend the money before the taxes were due and borrowed against future tax revenues. The debt quickly became a Ponzi scheme issuing new debt to pay off the old as we are doing today. The interest kept rising so they just raised taxes. The rich began to leave and the city was quickly left with the people who didn’t really pay taxes. The bubble burst when they could not sell the next new issue of debt to pay off the last one. The city defaulted. The Pope excommunicated the politicians. And eventually the city was simply sacked and burned to the ground.

Politicians are the scourge of human society. They are the great destroyers of civilization and the instruments of war. People champion gold standards as if this would solve anything. The common fault is not what we call money, it is always, and without exception, those who we put in charge of it.

Meanwhile, Moody’s and S&P have both downgraded the general obligation debt of the state of Illinois as of June 1, on a combination of a state government budget impasse and a seemingly unstoppable unfunded pension obligation that has now ballooned into at least a $130 billion shortfall. You better get out of the State before it is too late. Property values will decline further because of the tax burden.